By a unanimous vote, on August 11 Macau’s Legislative Assembly (AL) approved amendments to laws regulating the tourism tax in the city.
According to legislator Lei Nai Wong, the local secretary for Economy and Finance, the new regulations will take effect January 1, 2023, with the tax applied in the city’s integrated resorts and hotels.
Under previous rules, the tourism tax was collected by businesses and then paid to the government through the Tourism Fund. Under the amended law, the funds will go directly to the government’s general account and be available to fund projects beyond tourism development.
According to the Macau Daily Times, in debates prior to the vote, several lawmakers expressed concerns about the amendments, saying depositing the funds directly to the central treasury might hamper tourism development by making the sector more dependent on annual budgeting.
The amendments are part of a group of rules for gaming that were revised ahead of the upcoming concession retender. Macau Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng will exercise stricter control over the spending of the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) , one of the government’s big spenders under former Chief Executive Chui Sai On.
Ho took office in 2020 and placed the MGTO under the control of the Secretariat for Economy and Finance, not the Secretariat of Social Affairs and Culture, as during the previous administrations.
The new 5 percent tax chiefly applies to services provided to tourists, including hotel and resort customers as well as those who patronize spas, saunas, bars, karaoke venues and the like.
